Finally, we're getting FTTP, woo-hoo! (it was installed in June 2024)

Got a card through the door saying our street is now FTTP worthy. So a basic question first, where does the necessary cabling initially route from? The street is typical with standard telegraph poles with normal phone spider web cables going to each house, is the fibre run along the same up in the air route to the poles, or does it run completely separate, or underground? Not seen anyone doing any work outside prior to the card to be honest, though maybe its a five minute job for them? Currently with Virgin, with the cable coming underground from the road. I remember when they installed Virgin they put another phone point above the BT one and I think physically disabled the BT point, so don;t know if that will be relevant to an install. I know basically nothing about FTTP. I only know a bit about FTTC as my dad has that, and it all uses normal phone lines. Is FTTP remotely similar in any way as regards how it initially gets to your house from a pole or whatever? I see all you guys giving live updates about your FTTP installs, what do they actually do on the day?
 
Got a card through the door saying our street is now FTTP worthy. So a basic question first, where does the necessary cabling initially route from? The street is typical with standard telegraph poles with normal phone spider web cables going to each house, is the fibre run along the same up in the air route to the poles, or does it run completely separate, or underground? Not seen anyone doing any work outside prior to the card to be honest, though maybe its a five minute job for them? Currently with Virgin, with the cable coming underground from the road. I remember when they installed Virgin they put another phone point above the BT one and I think physically disabled the BT point, so don;t know if that will be relevant to an install. I know basically nothing about FTTP. I only know a bit about FTTC as my dad has that, and it all uses normal phone lines. Is FTTP remotely similar in any way as regards how it initially gets to your house from a pole or whatever? I see all you guys giving live updates about your FTTP installs, what do they actually do on the day?
@Bubo this is a fairly decent summary of what to expect - https://www.openreach.com/help-and-support/full-fibre-broadband-installation-checklist
 
So a basic question first, where does the necessary cabling initially route from? The street is typical with standard telegraph poles with normal phone spider web cables going to each house, is the fibre run along the same up in the air route to the poles, or does it run completely separate, or underground? Not seen anyone doing any work outside prior to the card to be honest, though maybe its a five minute job for them?
If your phone line comes in from an overhead telegraph pole then the FTTP will come in the same way. This is what he did here:

Inside the house.
Cut the copper about six inches from the master socket.
Fitted the ONT (which is the box inside) exactly where I wanted it, fed the fibre out through the same hole the copper had come in.
Tacked the fibre nicely where the copper had been.

Outside the house.
Climbed the pole, attached the fibre and dragged it over to my house. He loosely attached it to the bracket thing at the top.
He then spliced the two ends together and we tested it.
Then he tidied the two lengths of fibre, tacked them to the wall, tested all again.
Fitted the splice box, trimmed the fibres so they were the right length, respliced and tested.
Removed the old copper from the house to the telegraph pole.
Wound the slack fibres into the space space in the splice box.

Inside the house.
Fitted a blanking plate in the old master socket.

General tidying up. He didn't leave any waste or mess anywhere.

Total time was about 2 1/2 hours.
 
Mine didn't touch any of the copper
Or master socket inside the house at all
Not that I was bothered
So that bit may depend on individual engineer

But yeah I believe where they can
They now recycle the old copper wire

Also no mess left with mine
He had a little hand held battery vacuum
 
I was signed up with BT or OR (can't remember) and got an email when the street went live. This surprised me as I knew Lit Fibre had been cabling up the street but not OR. OR beat LF by about 10 days. Virgin then did us about a month later, talk about London Busses :D
 
My speed's gone up since it was put in.

ZuPZLQJ.png
 
FTTP is by far one of major improvements for the country, we are finally catching up to rest of the world lol Can't complain too much about by Hey Broadband one..
 
My dad used to be on about 0.8mbps until I sorted him with a 4G backup device. Now he's on 30mbps, capped by he provider though to be fair, probably could get faster.
 
My dad used to be on about 0.8mbps until I sorted him with a 4G backup device. Now he's on 30mbps, capped by he provider though to be fair, probably could get faster.
Following on from my post above yours, I set my parents up with a mobile connection which is capped at 10mbps not by the provider but because that’s the max the wiring connecting the 5G mobile mast to the network is capable of. Madness!
 
Finally I got FTTP, woohoo

this topic is special to me, discovered openreach engineers on our street back in january when topic appeared.
now just installed
 
Finally got FTTP (900/200), out-in-the-sticks which is North Devon. Airbands supplied Nokia Routers (they supply 2 on the highest package, one to be used as a AP) is not great though and i couldn't wait to get my Unifi gear connected up instead. They use a standard DHCP connection and not PPPoE (which i guess means they use CGNAT?). After one missed visit the engineer did a tidy job and was more than happy to run the cable from the back to the front of the house.
 
Last edited:
they use CGNAT?

Yes, but you can request a static IP.

 
Even with 4G/5G or Starlink or similar?
3.5mbps is the copper line and is very optimistic. As I mentioned above 5G is limited to 10mbps due to the low capacity of the lines connecting the mobile tower to main backbone. Starlink is too expensive (and not required in this particular case) so won’t be tried
 
So after checking nearly every day it appears GigaClear are now available at my address.
Now my next issues is.....do I go for it? Or hold out a bit longer as we now have Virgin vans in the area carrying out work to bring their FTTP....
 
Back
Top Bottom